View co-host Whoopi Goldberg absurdly wondered if the Parkland high school shooting was the long-awaited “call” that would get teens involved in political activism. On ABC’s February 20 show, the hosts praised the students for “responding to a threat,” comparing the teens progressive activism to the Vietnam War, Civil Rights and women’s suffrage movements.
After reading Trump’s tweet over the weekend, which blamed the F.B.I. for being too focused on the Russia investigation instead of following up on the multiple warnings they received about the shooter in the months prior to the massacre, Whoopi wondered if the students fighting back, would be different than past school shootings.
Comparing this shooting to the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, she actually asked if this tragic event was the “call” young people needed to get involved in political activism.
“Now, you know, the little kids in Sandy Hook, they were too young to do this. So maybe this is -- maybe this is -- the mounting call we have been waiting for young people to get,” she asked to lead off the table discussion.
Co-host Joy Behar agreed with the loaded question, saying that kids were “at risk” so they were responding as other people groups have responded to injustices in the past.
“Back in the day it was, during the Vietnam War, it were [sic] the guys,” she said, adding that her husband and other men protested the draft. “And we became very proactive. There was an actual threat, and I think that’s what these kids are responding to,” Behar argued.
Her fellow host Sunny Hostin agreed, gushing, “It’s their lives at risk!”
Hostin went on to describe her son and his friends telling her that they wanted the “grownups” to “do something” about the mass shootings. “I felt terrible about that,” she said, sadly.
Whoopi praised the kids as “exceptional” for protesting gun violence. Along with guest host Holly Robinson Peete, she compared their activism to the civil rights and women’s suffrage movements:
WHOOPI: Things do change. People taking to the streets. Young people taking to the streets changes things. I watched it happen in the civil rights era. I watched it happen during the women's marches that used to happen. People can make change happen. And it's a good thing.
HOLLY ROBINSON PEETE: You think about the freedom riders you think about all these people. At the time, everyone said, oh, they're not going to do anything. They're rebels. They were talked down. They weren't looked kindly upon at that time. Now, these young people are determined to make something happen. It's fascinating to watch.
Hostin said she was “in love” with the idea of the students “marching for their lives” on March 24. “The fact that they’re mobilizing that quickly? Wonderful,” she gushed.
ABC then played a clip of one of the more outspoken student activists, Emma Gonzalez, which many in the media have promoted, where the teen bashes conservative responses to gun control in a facts-free emotional rant:
GONZALEZ: Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have ever been done to prevent this, we call B.S.! [ Cheers and applause ] We say that -- they say that tougher gun laws do not decrease gun violence. We call B.S.! They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call B.S.! They say that no laws could have been able to prevent the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call B.S.!
As The View audience clapped and the liberal hosts shook their heads in agreement, Whoopi called the display “amazing” as the panel moved on to honor the students who heroically gave up their lives in their efforts to save their fellow students.
